US markets eke out minor gains

11 Apr 2017 Evaluate

The US markets closed higher on Monday, as strength in energy shares helped to offset selling pressure sparked by geopolitical concerns, but market sentiment remained cautious going into the first-quarter earnings season. Increased tension in the Middle East tends to boost oil prices by limiting supply levels. The worries were over the situation on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of unconfirmed reports that China is moving large number of troops to its border with North Korea. According to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey released showed that measures of US inflation expectations dropped to their lowest levels in four months in March, reversing a brief run-up that could temper hopes for broader price pressure. The survey of consumer expectations, an increasingly influential gauge of prices for the US central bank, showed that both year-ahead and three-year-ahead expectations fell to 2.7 percent, from 3 percent in February. The measurements rose through December and January to their highest levels since mid-2015, before flattening in February and declining last month.

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said that the Federal Reserve’s plans to raise US interest rates gradually are aimed at sustaining full employment and near-2-percent inflation without letting the economy overheat. Unemployment, at 4.5 percent, is now a little bit below the jobless rate that most Fed officials think signals full employment, and inflation is reasonably close to the Fed’s 2-percent goal. With the economy expected to continue to grow at a moderate pace, the Fed is now shifting its focus. Yellen’s comments largely echoed what she has said since then, and did not offer any new color on the timing of the rate hikes, or of the Fed’s eventual reduction of its $4.5 trillion balance sheet.

Separately, Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis president James Bullard has again argued in favour of keeping short-term US interest rates near current levels, but he says there’s a chance rates may need to rise more than he now expects. Bullard added that instead of raising rates he would like to see the Fed take action to reduce the size of its $4.5 trillion balance sheet, which grew rapidly due to stimulus policies undertaken to get the economy back on track during and after the financial crisis. He noted that allowing the balance sheet to contract now would give Fed officials space to raise their holdings again in the future should they need to provide that sort of stimulus to the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.92 points or 0.01 percent to 20,658.02, the Nasdaq was up 3.12 points or 0.05 percent to 5,880.93, while S&P 500 gained 1.62 points or 0.07 percent to 2,357.16.

The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green; HDFC Bank was up 0.51%, ICICI Bank was up 0.03% and Tata Motors was up 0.03%. On the other hand, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 0.37% and Infosys was down 0.09%.

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